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At least 20 are left violently ill after being poisoned by paralytic shellfish harvested over the weekend
There were at least 20 people harvesting mussels on Oregon's Short Beach this weekend who were seriously poisoned after eating them, prompting health officials to tell residents to immediately throw out any mollusks they might still have.
These 20 individuals were struck with paralytic shellfish poisoning (PSP), which is a sometimes-deadly foodborne illness that occurs when a person eats a certain naturally occurring marine biotoxin produced by algae.
Symptoms of PSP - which set in 30 to 60 minutes after consuming the contaminated shellfish - include numbness of the mouth and lips, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and weakness, according to an announcement from the Oregon Health Authority.
In severe cases, sufferers can experience shortness of breath or an irregular heartbeat, and in those cases, those people could need a respirator until the toxin is flushed out from their system, according to the Washington State Department of Health.
Some of the 20 people who fell ill with PSP were hospitalized but no one has died.
Pictured: Short Beach in Tillamook County, Oregon, where at least 20 people came down with paralytic shellfish poisoning, a potentially deadly foodborne illness. This beach is roughly 80 miles west of Portland
Pictured: Seal Rock State Park in Oregon. This is the southernmost point of the beach closure initiated by state officials due to elevated PSP levels found in mussels
A spokesperson for the Oregon Health Authority told DailyMail.com that there may be more people infected than the initial 20 that were reported.
Pending additional investigation, the agency will update the case numbers later this week.
State officials initially detected high levels of PSP in the waters of Oregon on last Thursday. That same day, the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife and Oregon Department of Agriculture jointly agreed to close a section of coastline stretching as far south as Seal Rock State Park and as north as Cape Lookout.
Unfortunately, the people who got sick were fishing for mussels on Saturday and Sunday off the coast of Short Beach, an area about 12 miles north of the closed zone.
On Sunday, officials responding to the rash of PSP cases by extending the closure up past the border of Washington state.
'The agencies have indicated they are planning additional testing to determine if the threat of PSP still exists,' the Oregon Health Authority said in a statement provided to DailyMail.com.
Emilio DeBess, epidemiologist at the Oregon Public Health Division, told Oregonians to immediately discard any mussels they may have taken home with them.
'If you have any mussels gathered since Saturday from beaches within the area of coastline that ODFW and ODA closed to harvesting – that you are preparing for a meal or keeping in the freezer for a later time – throw them out now and do not feed them to pets,' DeBess said.
This map depicts the exact area of shoreline closed to mussel harvesting. The closure extends past the border of Washington, but it isn't clear how far
Cape Lookout, pictured, was previously the northmost point of the PSP beach closure, but when mussel harvesters north of this point fell ill, state officials extended the closure all the way up into the state of Washington
This is because the toxin that causes PSP doesn't die after being cooked or frozen.
DeBess added that her recommendations don't extend to commercially caught mussels that are available in grocery stores, maintaining that those are safe to eat.
PSP is the most common form of foodborne illness found in shellfish and is also the mostly severe, officials said.
The disease can be found anywhere in the world but is most common off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts of North America, according to the press release.
While this outbreak occurred with mussels specifically, PSP can be present in scallops, clams, oysters and cockles, as well as some fish and crabs, according to the CDC.
Officials also emphasized that there is no antidote or cure for PSP, which only makes it all the more imperative that those who feel symptoms go to the doctor or call emergency services.